The Crown's Obsession

Lucy doubted a few years equalled two or three years. For so many years, she had been made a fool of herself. Her eyes then opened, "You could have told me."

"You were the one who picked the person out of the two people which your parents showed. It was your choice, milady," Theodore's words were calm.

Lucy shook her head.

"No," whispered Lucy with pain in her eyes, "My choice was none of them. The person I wanted to marry didn't have the courage to return my feelings and to tell me that he loved me. My choice appears to be of failure." Lucy was speaking about Theodore and not about Samuel anymore. All these years since she was married to Samuel, she had harboured nothing but hate towards Theodore. Because it was easier to let go of things when you despised it with every living part of yourself.

Lucy had put all her feelings in a container and closed the lid that she had for the man who stood in front of her. In anger, she had never tried to confront things with him. With every opportunity, she had avoided him.

"I told you, milady. It wasn't my place. You have appeared to be too fond of your husband. Telling anything directly would be me stepping out of line," Theodore responded. There had been a time where he had sent her to follow her husband so that she would find out, but the princess was distracted by other things which was why she never came to find the truth about Samuel. Not to forget, the previous King and the Queen kept a close eye on him and Calhoun as they both imposed a threat to the throne.

The circumstances back then were hard, before the person he was getting attached to, Calhoun was Theodore's main priority.

This wasn't what Lucy wanted to hear.

Why didn't you ever profess your love for me, asked Lucy in her mind, without bringing the words out for him to hear. She had a feeling if she were to ask Theodore would only brush it away, similar to what he had done in the past.

She shook her head, ready to leave when the door to the dining room opened. It was Lady Rosamund who raised her eyebrows at both Lucy and Theodore.

"My my. What do we have here?" asked Lady Rosamund, "I hope it's not rekindling memories in the middle of the night?"

Lucy bit the inside of her cheek. She hadn't expected her Aunt Rosamund to be awake and out, not to come here at least. Her aunt's eyes looked at her and then shifted on Theodore who bowed his head.

"We came here to drink water," Lucy answered Aunt's Rosamund's question. She could feel the underlying meaning in her aunt's words.

"Funny that none of us have water in our rooms and we are all here at the same time, isn't it?" asked Lady Rosamund, coming towards the table and looking at Theodore, "Are you going to pour me a glass of water or not?" asked the older vampiress.

Theodore had spent the same amount of time as Calhoun did in the castle as both of them had entered the castle together with the same objective. Both the men were aware of the people who worked in the castle and also the relatives who were close to the deceased King and the Queen. The older vampiress, Lady Rosamund had tried getting Lucy and her son together, in hopes that her family would still be able to get the throne. And maybe it would have been easy as the lady was the King's sister.

But somewhere, Rosamund found out about Lucy's growing feelings towards him. He doubted Lucy spoke about him to the lady, but someone did go and put a word about the matter to the late Queen. Though he never had the confirmation, he had his suspicion on her.

Noticing Lady Rosamund, who had raised her brows while waiting for him to pour her a glass of water from the jug, Theodore bowed his head,

"I am a minister here, milady and only Calhoun's servant to serve. I will have the maids refill water in the jugs of your room," offering the lady a smile who looked as if she had been slapped straight at her face, Theodore looked at Lucy for the briefest moment before taking his leave from the dining room.

Lucy, who had drank water, decided to leave the room too as she had nothing more to do here. But her aunt stopped her,

"Lucy dear."

Turning around, Lucy asked, "Yes, Aunt Rosamund?"

"I hope you aren't doing something that you shouldn't be doing," Lady Rosamund advised her niece, "Associating yourself with a man who is not only beneath you but also someone who once you shared rumours with. It wouldn't look nice as you are not only the princess but also married to Samuel."

Lucy opened her mouth, to reply on her aunt's words, but instead of speaking about what she saw, she decided to keep quiet. After all, her martial matters had nothing to do with her aunt or anyone else. The shock had not left her body yet. She needed time to process and think about it, on what she saw and what she was going to do.

She offered her aunt a smile, "We just happened to appear at the same time. You worry unnecessarily, Aunt Rosamund. I will be going to my room."

When Lucy stepped out of the room, the smile on Lucy's face fell at the thought of how her room was empty, and she would be sharing the bed with her husband who was having an affair with the maid right at this moment.

"Goodnight, dear," Lady Rosamund wished her niece.

In one of the guests' rooms, Sophie was pacing back and forth in the room. Wringing her hands together, she tried to think about what she could do. The plan to marry Calhoun had slipped out of her hands, and she was trying to get back. The question was what to do.

Sophie wondered if she should get the poison from the market, through the merchants. There were some people whom she knew who could get it for her. But the question was on who to use as bait. Madeline's sister would be perfect, but by the looks so far, Elizabeth and her younger sister appeared to be close. If only she could find one pinch of dislike, she could make use of it and frame Elizabeth.

But Sophie also wanted to poison Elizabeth along with Madeline. The girl got on her nerves! Far worse than Madeline!

Considering how her brother Markus had betrayed her and was not doing anything, she wondered if she should set her brother up for the poisoning.

Who else was there? Sophie questioned in her mind. And suddenly someone knocked on the door of her room. The young vampiress' eyebrows furrowed, wondering who had come to visit her at this hour.

Walking towards the door, Sophie opened only to frown, "What do you want, Markus?"

Markus quickly allowed himself into the room while making sure no one saw him, and he closed the door. "I need a favour from you. Right now," spoke her brother.

Sophie glared at her brother and then asked,

"What is it?"